


Crazy Quills

by spaceycowgirl



Series: Sisera [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Gore, Family Feels, Gen, Identity Issues, Light Angst, Serious, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28754151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceycowgirl/pseuds/spaceycowgirl
Summary: "War. War never changes."Sisera was a beat cop on a tiny island protected from the rest of the world. She enjoyed the quiet paradise life, but when war begins to wage across the planet, her identity and family are uprooted. She struggles to find who she really is as she fights for her life and the lives of others. Can she learn to control her abilities and emotions or will she lose herself to fear and destruction?This is a prequel to a series that's a brainchild I've been sitting on. The prequel follows along with the story of Sonic Forces, but has changes made to it to make it more serious. The rest of the series doesn't follow any of the other games, but will be a continuation of Forces.
Series: Sisera [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108079
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if I need to add or change tags, I haven't posted fanfiction in almost 10 years.

Christmas Island was a hidden paradise located between South and Flickie Islands. It was protected by clear waters and luscious hills, and between the fish and fertile soil, it’s agriculture was perfect. The residents often chose to live their entire lives there without setting foot off the island.

Sisera felt a special connection to her home on Christmas Island. She lived with her family on a large piece of land outside of Christmas City and always sensed peace and safety. She knew everyone, got along with most of them, and found purpose in her job as a beat cop. Crime was rare, especially since her and her step-father had made a name for themselves on the force.

It was truly a utopia, an untainted gift from the gods.

But even Sisera needed a break from perfection. Quiet island life got incredibly boring, and visiting The City was the perfect place to find a little excitement. A quick ferry ride through the Mobius Sea, and she was walking along the sidewalks of The City. Her vacations usually lasted about a week, but this one was three weeks in and wasn’t going to be ending anytime soon. With Carnival season going on, she didn’t want to leave such fabulous parades and festivities. 

It was twilight as Sissy arrived at her favorite café. Shop owners were still busy cleaning up from the parade the day before, and citizens happily visited with friends about the fun. The weather was fair, so she sat at a table outside to enjoy her coffee and donuts.

“HELP!”

The sudden noise of screams and explosions were heard throughout The City. Citizens began to panic and run for cover from something they couldn’t see. Others sprung into action, forming The City Militia Sissy had heard rumors about from coworkers.

Vacation or not, Sisera still had a duty to do her job. She quickly left behind her favorite evening snack and followed the militia against the fleeing crowds. The sounds of destruction were getting louder and louder, the screams of people strained against her ears.

“Shit…”

It was worse than it sounded. Something was completely devastating The City, not only demolishing buildings, but _killing_ innocent people. She was shocked, frozen in disbelief. Even as an officer, she had never seen such grotesque horror. Bodies lined the streets, blasted apart, torn from limb to limb, or decapitated. Fresh blood covered Sisera’s shoes as she backed away in fear.

But citizens were still fleeing, and she couldn’t let the same thing happen to them. For what felt like hours, Sissy herded people to safety, guiding them toward Green Hill. Though Lost Valley had begun to house some questionable fauna, cutting through there was safer than whatever was happening in The City. They could hide in the valleys, and she made it known to anyone she could where the safest spots were.

As crowds dwindled, Sisera began to search for the injured. Most were militia types, too scared to even speak. She helped as best she could, but they were unresponsive and couldn’t tell her if they had a broken bone or if they just had a cut. She was helping a soldier wrap his foot when shots from blasters could be heard.

Sprinting toward the noise, Sisera was met with soldiers shooting at a shadowy figure levitating above them.

**“There is no reason to resist. Your savior is no more.”**

The voice was quiet, dark, but it could still be heard over the mayhem. The shots fired never touched the figure, instead taking sharp turns above it and into the sky. A red orb of light rose in its hand before shooting a powerful energy toward the soldiers. Sissy dove towards the nearest person, pushing him away, taking a hit on her right arm. She slammed onto the ground, crushing her hit arm.

“Run!” she screamed, but she didn’t need to.

The soldier had already disappeared. Bodies of the dead surrounded her, some of them even burning from the carnage. A blaster had flown from a soldier, landing near her, and Sissy was quick to grab it.

 **“I can taste your terror child,”** it said. **“All that anxiety and doubt… It’s delicious.”**

Before Sisera could even look at the figure, it shot a beam of power toward her, knocking her off her feet.

**“Give in to your fear, flee, screaming, and I’ll let you live.”**

He was a male wolf. That’s all she could discern. He was coated in a black and red aura and a mask that hid everything else.

“Fuck you!”

Sisera shot the blaster with her left hand, missing the figure by a mile. But that didn’t matter. He turned to watch it pass and laughed. When he looked back around, Sisera was gone.

The trek back home was a difficult one. With no form of transportation, Sisera had to make her way through Lost Valley on foot. Luckily, she saw signs of those who took her advice and followed the footsteps toward Green Hill.

Lost Valley was dry, almost barren. Unfamiliar sand covered what was once gorgeous green terrain and strange creatures roamed through the wreckage. It wasn’t until she arrived at a ship when she put two and two together.

“Robotnik…” she whispered.

 _Of course_ it was all his doing. Who else would cause such destruction, such pain on the world? He also had to behind that dark figure. There was no other explanation.  
The rest of the night, Sisera spent her walk avoiding badniks and nursing her bum arm. She was by no means a fast person, making her trip slow and painful. Day broke as refugees ran for her collapsed body.

Christmas Island was now a safe haven for those who fled South Island. A native, Sisera was able to help them cross Mobius Sea and find shelter in Christmas City. She returned home to a relieved family, and the inhabitants did everything in their power to help her and the refugees heal and hide.

As days went on, more people arrived on the island, wounded, scared, lost. The news played nothing but Robotnik’s reign of terror across the planet and a rising death count. Sisera’s brother was among the dead.

Her and her mother cried for days. There was no body for a funeral, no time to grieve, so they cried at night in their beds when they weren’t helping those in pain. Her step-father did his best to keep the island together, but just one man couldn’t handle the magnitude of what was happening. Her step-brother did what he could to keep the family functional, but everything was slipping out of their hands.

Finally, the day came. Robotnik and his badniks arrived on the island. They all knew he would, but they prayed he would forget. They prayed he would forget the island where it all started. That they would stay untouched after picking up the pieces from so long ago. But he didn’t forget, and when they all saw him, they surrendered. There wasn’t going to be a fight or any resistance. They knew the only way to stay safe was to put their heads down and obey.

#

Sisera was a coward. She could never shake the deep seated feeling that she was just a scared little girl who lived in her brother’s shadow. She tried all her life to be someone different, someone who wouldn’t be compared to him. It seemed to work, most people likening her to her step-father. She felt pride in this, but she still wasn’t her brother. She wasn’t a hero.

“A dead hero.”

They knew it was a possibility, but he always seemed so untouchable. He was sharp, quick witted, and most of all, moral. He knew what was right and wrong, and he did everything in his power to get rid of the wrong. Sisera thought maybe becoming a cop like her step-father would set her on the right track to become a hero. But it was pointless when the worst thing that ever happened was a flickie getting stuck in a tree.

The transmission that came in months later was heavily encrypted, but Sisera had been gifted the tools to read the message years before. It was a call for help. A call to resist the Doctor and fight for what was right.

“A dead hero…”

Her brother had passed, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t continue his legacy. She wanted to stop being a coward, stop being a cry baby, get off her ass, and do something about all of this. It was hard. It was hard coming to terms with her mortality. It was hard leaving her family, leaving her crying mother while she rode off on her police bike. It was hard finding a way to cross the sea, riding through the United Federation, and searching for the Resistance HQ outside of Empire City.

But she did it, and she was happy she did.


	2. The Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This FF has been fun to write for myself. I sometimes struggle with heavy dialogue, though.  
> I decided to put ch 2 and 3 together and change the beginning to a prologue. It made more sense in my mind to do this as it all goes together pretty well. That way, chapters will be longer.

“SIS!”

Knuckles almost knocked Sisera over as he reached out to bear hug her. The look of happiness and relief on his face was priceless.

“Hey, Knucklehead…” she gasped, trying to wiggle her way out of his iron grip. “You’ve grown.”

Since the last time she saw him, Knuckles had shot a foot above her and gained a ridiculous amount of muscle. Boxer’s tape was wrapped around his hands, dirtied from wear and tear. It was like seeing a totally different person.

“Dang, your quills look crazy,” he said as he finally let her go.

“It’s been a while since I dyed them, and well, I’m sure I look and smell fantastic from travel.”

Knuckles sniffed his hands and made a face. “No kidding.”

Sisera rolled her eyes. She never minded that the boy was a ditz, but sometimes he could be a bit too offhanded.

“A shower and a bed would be awesome…” she implied.

“Oh, yeah, haha,” Knuckles chuckled. He beckoned her to follow. “How did you find us?”

“The transmission. I still have some old tech I use in case of emergencies. Glad I saved it.”

Knuckles’ smile faltered, but only for a moment. The bunker they were hiding in was an old one from the days of their grandparents’ wars, but it had been outfitted and maintained since the Resistance took it over. They walked through metal halls with the voices of fighters bickering over strategies heard through open doors. Knuckles led Sisera to a series of rooms housing cots, sinks, showers, and toilets.

“I stay in this one.”

Knuckles pointed to a large closet that only sat two cots.

“Uh, everyone has a hard time sleeping around me, so this cot’s available…”

Knuckles snored. Bad. Sisera knew, but anything was better than sleeping in a dumpster to stay hidden.

She smiled for the first time in months. “I think I’d feel comfortable staying with someone I know. I’d like to be your bunk mate if that’s okay?”

“AWESOME. Shower’s over there, and there’s extra toiletries in that storage bin. Get some rest, and we’ll talk later.” 

“Yeah,” Sisera sighed. 

Talk. She hadn’t spoken a word to anyone since she left home. Now all she was going to do was talk. Relive pain. Feel anger.

Knuckles left to let her do her thing, and she let her mind and body go numb. She wasn’t going to think about any of that stuff right now. She was going to take the longest shower of her life and sleep for two days.

#

“Please, wake up.”

Sisera opened her eyes to see a blurry pink figure holding what looked like a tray of food.

“Rosy?” she mustered.

As she sat up, a wave of nausea and lightheadedness overtook her. She quickly leaned back to let it pass, and the figure set the tray in her lap.

“Oh, Sissy, I’m so happy you’re okay! You’ve been asleep for days, not even Knuckles’ sleep talking woke you. I was so worried you wouldn’t wake up, but I kept giving you liquids, and you drank them in your sleep so I knew you had to be in there somewhere and I-”

“Slow down, my head hurts.”

Sisera closed her eyes and focused on the cool temperature of the bunker. When she opened them, Amy was sitting next to her, a mix of joy and worry on her face.

“Ah, Beautiful Rose,  
filled with Love for the Feeble.  
You are Loved, too, dear.”

“You’d be on your death bed still trying to profess your love to me,” Amy giggled.

Sisera laughed briefly before destroying the soup in front of her. When was the last time she ate? A week ago? Too long ago, that was for sure. She didn’t care if Amy watched her while she practically inhaled the meal down. She pushed the empty bowl away and gave the girl a warm hug. 

“You’ve grown.” Sisera knew she was going to be saying that a lot.

Amy was about the same height as her now, but she still rocked her signature red dress. She had traded in her gogo boots for better fitting shoes, and her gloves were much tighter around her hands. Better to swing a hammer with.

“Just a bit. Not as much as Knuckles, obviously, but I finally caught up with you in height.” 

Amy looked proud. Sisera shook her head and tried to stand up, but her body betrayed her. She slumped forward, her right arm shooting in pain. Amy caught her with ease.

“Please, don’t push yourself! I can help you with whatever you need.”

“Bathroom, shower, a medic…” Sisera groaned.

Amy didn’t need to be told anything else. She helped Sisera to the toilet, scrubbed her quills until they were pristine, and brought her to the medic’s room.

“What happened to your arm?” the doctor asked. He was a serious looking cat creature, apparently an army doctor back in the day.

“Shot with a blaster, landed on it right after,” Sisera explained. “I couldn’t get proper medical attention for it until days after, and there was only so much they could do.”

She showed him a nasty scar on her right shoulder leading from the collar bone to the tricep.

“Shattered your shoulder?” he grunted.

“Practically. Miracle it somehow works.”

She wasn’t going to explain that miracle to him, he just needed to know the important bits. After having to move her arm in strange and extremely painful ways for the doctor, she was ready to faint.

“I can do some lancing and dig out the abscesses that have formed. Or I can give you a shot of whiskey, cut you open, slice some muscle, tendon, and nerves, move some bone, and patch you up before anything starts to get infected. Your arm is never going to work the way it used to, but I can at least get it working.”

Amy looked at Sisera’s arm in horror. The thought of even draining an abscess made her queasy. But Sisera had seen enough gore at this point to simply shrug her left shoulder.

“Give me the whole bottle of whiskey, and I’ll let you cut my arm off.”

The doctor chose to ignore her remark. “You won’t be able to do much for a few weeks after the surgery, but you’ll be too hopped up on pain meds to care.”

They agreed the sooner the better. Sisera would have her arm worked on in the morning.

“I’m so sorry about your arm,” Amy cried. She had taken numerous pillows and blankets and was making a nest for Sisera to rest her arm on. “I wish I could have done something… I wish-I wish…”

The tears flowed heavily down her cheeks. Though she was a fighter, she was still a child. A young girl who shouldn’t be dealing with so much responsibility, so much pain, so much suffering. She curled into a ball on Sisera’s left arm and sobbed her eyes sore. Sisera cried, too. There was so much she wanted to tell the girl, but none of it would have changed anything. So they cried until the sun set and then fell asleep from exhaustion.

#

“Heyyyy…”

Sisera was doped up on painkillers and looked like a hot mess, but her arm was healing fast and she sure did like being high as a kite.

“Everyone, meet our newest recruit!” Knuckles tried his best to upsell Sisera, but she was too far gone. No amount of gold that could fix that turd.

“Um, doesn’t look like much.”

A little bee flew toward Sisera and looked at her patched up arm. His voice was so funny to her, she began to giggle.

Knuckles scoffed. “Neither do you, Charmy, but I still find a use for your sorry ass.”

“He’s so cuuuute.” Sisera grabbed Charmy and hugged him tight. A red tint ran across his face.

“Shit, Sis, is that you?”

A crocodile pulled Charmy away from Sisera and scooped her into a hug.

“Vex, I missed you!”

“Quit calling me that!” Vector laughed and ruffled her quills.

“You’ve…grown…” she blurted. “Fuck, dude, you’re a tank now. We used to be the same height, you were so skinny, too. I’m gonna cry.”

Vector barked out a laugh. “You’re eyes are blown, what were you smoking?”

“She’s on a lot of pain medicine,” Amy answered gingerly. “Her arm was messed up and the doctor fixed it for her a few days ago.”

“You two know each other?” Knuckles asked Vector, trying to steer any conversation away from Sisera’s state of mind.

“Ages ago, we grew up on the same island. I didn’t stay long, but I still remember Sis chasin' her brother around and beatin' up all the school bullies.”

A heavy silence fell over the command room.

A chameleon nodded as Sisera. “Espio.”

A silver hedgehog waved hello at her. “I’m Silver.”

She tried not to laugh at that, but she thinks she may have failed.

“I’m Sisera. You can call me Sis or Sissy or hey, lady. Just don’t call me…uh…” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

They knew what she meant.

“So what exactly is she going to do?” Silver asked.

“That’s actually why I wanted you in this meeting,” Knuckles began. “Once Sisera’s arm is healed, she’s going to need some combat training, and you’re going to be the best person to help her that.”

Silver furrowed his eyebrows. “What? Why me? And won’t her arm take months to properly heal? We don’t have that kind of time!”

“Well…” Amy shifted her weight. “Long story short, Sissy had an accident when she was young, and it left her with some interesting abilities.”

Silver stared. Sisera rose her left hand in front of her and snapped. The lights, the computers, and the equipment cut out. They were now standing in darkness. She snapped again and everything was back on, as if nothing had happened.

“I can’t do much, but there’s something there,” she slurred. “It’s kinda like telepathy, but I don’t know enough about it to understand. I can heal myself really fast though, and I can sometimes help heal others. It takes a lot of energy.”

She then yawned as if she had planned it.

#

Sisera was taking less drugs and starting to get feeling in her arm again. She had met many of the Resistance fighters and was told about many more working around Mobius. 

They were all welcoming, and a little too happy to have her there. She knew she probably instilled some sort of hope in them, but she didn’t think she could live up to their expectations. Not like her brother.

A wisp of smoke made its way out of Sisera’s nose. She blew more through her mouth, the cold, northern air biting against her teeth. She shivered. This wasn’t the paradise she was used to.

“What are you doing?”

The woman turned around the see Silver holding a modified blaster in his hands. He had a weird look on his face.

“Waiting for you. Weren’t we meeting outside to train?”

Silver shook his head. “No, I meant…” But he let it go. That wasn’t a battle he wanted to fight.

“Okay,” he said. “This is going to help with your abilities.”

He helped fit the device over Sisera’s left arm. It was less like a blaster and more of an arm cannon. It wasn’t heavy, making it easy for her to hold, and it felt almost like an extension of her body.

“What’s it do?” she asked, holding the cannon up toward the sun.

“This is going to help concentrate your abilities into one area of your body. Eventually you’ll be able to do it on your own, but it’s going to take a lot of practice.”

Silver began to levitate his body above the ground. “This is what we’ll work on first. Pushing your weight up from the floor.”

Before Silver could say anything else, Sisera levitated her body higher than his. She even had the means to control fluid movement while doing so.

Silver blinked. “Oh.”

“I can do all the parlor tricks, hun. I just can’t fight. I know about as much as I learned at the police academy, but when it comes to what I got, I have no idea how to use it to attack.” Sisera formed a shield in front of her. “I can only defend. I also never use this stuff around anyone. It wasn’t necessary in my life. There are many things I can’t control.”

Silver nodded. “Alright, we’ll just hop straight into the difficult stuff.”

Training everyday with Silver was brutal. Sisera knew he was going easy on her, too, but that didn’t make it any less hard. Not to mention her arm was still healing. Being able to only use her non dominant arm, and having to use a mixture of physical and mental abilities to fight was heavily straining on her body. She had to do it, though. She wasn’t going to chicken out.

“I think you’re ready for the field,” Silver sighed, wiping sweat from his brow. After a few weeks of training, Sisera was beginning to wear him down, too. “I think I pulled something trying to dodge that kick. You’re fast…”

Sisera snorted. “I’m the slowest person I know. My grandmother moves faster than me.”

The door to the bunker practically flew off its hinges before Silver could retort.

“EMERGANCY MEETING!” Knuckles screamed before sprinting back into the bunker.

Silver and Sisera looked at each other worriedly. This didn’t sound good. They made their way inside and squeezed past a few fighters in the command room. It was packed, everyone waiting in anxious silence. Amy pulled up some information on the command screen as Knuckles spoke.

“As you all know, my spy has been tailing Eggman for the past few months. She was able to find that he has an orbiting prison above Mobius.” Knuckles closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Sonic is alive. He’s been held there and has been tortured for the past six months.”

The entire bunker erupted in a cry of joy and tears. Their savior was alive, the hope they lost had returned.

“That’s excellent!” Silver cried, wrapping his arm around Sisera. He didn’t know what else to say, he was so shocked.

A single tear rolled down Sisera’s cheek before she fainted.

#

“Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Amy watched as Sisera outfitted herself for battle. A red bodysuit, running shoes, her police biker jacket, and the wispon cannon she’d been training with. A black scarf hung around her neck, something she could pull up to use as a mask.

“Yep.”

Amy shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I’m just glad you’re not going alone. Knuckles said a squad was accompanying you, so at least you’ll have help!”

“Mhm.”

The broken mirror in front of Sisera made it difficult to see her own face, but she could tell her quills were getting out of hand. They barely had any mocha colored dye left in them, turning into the natural color she wasn’t overly fond of. They hadn’t been maintained in a hot minute, so they stuck out every which way they could.

At one point, Amy had attempted to control Sisera’s wild spines, but she could only get the fur around it tidy. It’s like they had a mind of their own.

“I think you should stay…” Amy whispered.

Sisera popped her right shoulder. “A part of me thinks I should stay, too. That it’s still too early for me to be fighting. But we both know I’m not going to. I just can’t.”

“I understand.” Amy looked at the floor and sighed. “Here, I have something I need you to give him.”

She shoved a rose necklace into Sisera’s right hand.

“My good luck charm. He’ll give it back when I see him again.”

The girls hugged for a solid minute. They were scared. Scared for each other, and scared for all the prisoners.

“Don’t be mad if I keep it for myself,” Sisera whispered to her.

Amy crinkled her nose. “Stop trying to be my mom.” 

“We’ll be family one day, my sweet little Rosy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She let go of Sisera. “I’ll be on comms while you’re at the Chemical Plant. Be careful getting that ship.”


	3. Becoming a Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My child is sick so I'm unsure when I'll be able to post again, but I'm pretty happy with how this is going, and I'm excited to continue it.

The smell of the Chemical Plant stung Sisera’s nose. The weather didn’t make it any better, dark clouds rolling in over the early morning sky. They had to hurry before it started pouring. They wouldn't be able to get a ship off the ground in detrimental weather.

“We need to get a team to go in and distract Eggman’s army and either one or two fighters to procure a space shuttle,” Espio explained as they snuck around the ship yard.

“I’m going to get the Shuttle,” Sisera stated. There was a seriousness in her voice that dared anyone to argue against her. No one opposed.

“Anyone else want to volunteer?” Espio asked.

Silence.

“I’ll be able to handle it, y’all focus on the dirty work.”

When they split up, Sisera linked into her comm.

“Knuckles? Amy? Copy?”

“We’re here with ya, Sis,” Knuckles replied over a staticy link. “Get to the Spaceport. Amy is sending you a map of the Plant now.”

Sisera received a crude map that would take her straight to the port. It wasn’t going to be easy.

“In bound now, keep me updated.”

 _Did he run along these pipes as a kid?_ she asked herself, racing along metal pipes filled with blue liquid. The area was quiet save for the sounds of the Plant at work. Sisera prayed Espio’s team could keep it that way for her.

“Engaging enemy in orbital tunnel,” she heard him say over the comm.

Using the wispon cannon, Sisera used what she had learned from Silver to swing from pipe to pipe. “Energy” or “life force” he had called it. Sisera always thought it was just some sort of magic, but Silver went on and on about the planet gifting them the ability the use this energy, they should treasure it, use it for good, blah, blah, blah. If it got her what she wanted, that’s all that mattered.

“-ck. The -sked one……”

Sisera could barely hear what Espio was saying, but she had a good idea of what was going on.

“Stay focused and lay low!” Vector reassured him over the channel. “Sis, you may run into some trouble.”

“Roger.”

As if on cue, badniks bum rushed her from the scaffolding.

“You’re going to burn, alright…”

Fire shot from Sisera’s hand and through the wispon. Sparks flew as fire hit metal and wire, melting any plastic and rubber on their bodies. They were easy prey to test her new powers on. Not Robotnik’s best work.

“Sis!” Amy called into her comm. “There’s a freight train headed your way, and it’s unguarded! See if you can catch up with it to take a short cut!”

No time to dwell on the baddies, Sisera hopped onto the scaffolding and followed it toward the tracks…which were across a large gap of water.

“Get ready!” Amy screamed.

Panicking, Sisera shot a beam of light onto a pipe above her and swung as far as she could out towards the moving train. She was going to have to let inertia do the rest of the work, and prayed she wouldn’t bomb this jump as she released the beam. She body slammed, hard, down onto a train cart and slid toward the side. She held onto the corner of the cart for dear life, using all of her strength to pull up to safety. It was short lived though as a tunnel approached and there was no way she was going to make it through.  
Sisera screamed in fear, but it was knocked out of her as the beam she shot pulled her up toward another set of tracks. Another scream escaped her throat while a train came barreling towards her. A blindly shot beam of light latched onto something and pulled her away just in time to the safety of more pipes. And badniks.

A good jump and kick took care of a few of them while the rest were burned mercilessly.

“I think I’m too old for this,” Sisera gasped to no one in particular.

“You’re doing great!” Amy assured her. “The launch pad is quiet for now. See if you can get there before an alarm is sound. Look around for some rails, they should lead you right to it!”

Espio and his team must have been doing well if she had a straight shot to the shuttle. Just as Amy had said, after running along pipe, Sisera found railing that she could grind along.

This was not what she trained for, and it had been a while since she skateboarded after she turned it in for a motorcycle.

“Uh.”

Her shoes were outfitted to handle the grind, but it was the balance she was worried about.

Don’t chicken out. You’re so close.

“God dammit.”

Sisera backed up and took a running start before leaping onto a rail. The ride was fast, too fast for her slow lifestyle. She flew down the railing, having to jump to the next one as the first one ended. It was probably the scariest thing she had ever done, balancing herself on a thin piece of metal above toxic waters. Just before she made it to the last rail, vertigo set in. 

“Oh no…”

Sisera found her world starting to go sideways and nausea overtook her body. She wasn’t going to make it to the end of the rail as her body started leaning toward the pit of water below her. 

“Heal, heal, heal!”

Warmth enveloped her and the nausea quickly subsided. She caught herself just in time and used a light beam to carry her toward the launch pad.

The woman vomited violently onto the metal below her. The pain from her arm had finally caught up to her as her adrenalin tanked. Not to mention she was plain terrified of what was going on and what she was doing. The bile in her stomach turned over and over, releasing itself through her mouth and nose.

She was surprised she didn’t pass out from shock. There must have still been some fight left in her because after a quick rest, Sisera picked herself up and ran towards an unmanned shuttle.

#

“Hey, Espio?”

The chameleon looked at Sisera. She had passed out after the rest of the crew boarded the ship and had been asleep with a cold rag on her head until now.

“You think Tails is okay?”

Espio looked back toward the window. “Kid can take care of himself.”

Well that was that.

“How long have you and Charmy known Vex?”

“About four or five years. We did some work for Knuckles and Mighty.”

Sisera sat up a little too quickly. “You know Mighty!?”

Espio looked around, confused. “Yes?”

“Ah, how is he? I haven’t seen him in a while! We were best friends back in school. I knew he had helped out Knuckles at one point, but he never told me about y’all!”

Espio looked uncomfortable. “It was just a one time gig. Mighty wanted to stick to music more than detective work. I haven’t seen him in a while, but last I heard, he was holed up with some survivors out in Central City.”

Sisera laid back down. “I’m glad he’s okay. I’ll have to give him a call once all this shit is over.”

He didn’t say anything in return and chose to look at the window once more.

#

A seasoned operative, Espio had kept his entire squad intact. Sisera was relieved to walk off the shuttle with all the other fighters, but she wasn’t thrilled about being on the Death Egg. It had to have been about ten years ago when the first Death Egg plummeted onto Angel Island. Robotnik was hell bent on using the Chaos Emeralds to create his empire. Now, years later, he had succeeded without them.

A sultry voice could be heard through everyone’s earpiece. It explained how there was a prison on one part of the Death Egg, and their target was being held there. Sisera assumed this was Knuckles’ spy Rouge, and she was immediately in love.

“Eggman has caught wind of our little search and rescue,” she said. “He’s moving forward with some plans ahead of schedule, including banishing Sonic out into space.”

A wave of panic passed through the fighters.

“The prisoners are being held in a sort of intermittent facility. I believe that’s where Sonic is. The clock is ticking, boss.”

“You said an intermittent facility?” Sisera asked.

“Yes…” Rouge paused. “Many prisoners have not survived.”

There was a brief silence.

Espio nodded. “Let’s go.”

“Security is tight. Stay on your toes.” Rouge’s transmission cut out.

“We’ll split into teams,” Espio continued. “Alpha, north. Beta, east. Omega, west. We’re going to surround them. Team Omega will be heading toward security to shut everything down. Teams Alpha and Beta will stir up as much trouble as you can. When security is down, get all prisoners out and to the shuttle. Refer to your maps if you get lost, this place is massive.”

A collective whoop sounded from the fighters. Sisera assumed she would be on her own again, but Espio beckoned her to follow him. They began to head west, so it looked like she was with Omega team.

They ran in silence for what felt like a lifetime, Sisera trailing behind the rest of the group. Her anxiety was beginning to surface, a large knot forming in her chest. The more they ran, the more it hurt. Death weighed on her mind. She had already seen too much of it, and she didn’t want anymore to happen. She didn’t know how, but she was going end this.

“Incoming!”

The fighters began shooting at the badniks charging towards them. Espio was quick, taking down half a dozen with well thrown shurikens. 

“Burn…” Sisera whispered as bursts of flame shot through her wispon. The team made short work of the robots and continued on down their path. 

Run, fight, run, fight. Sisera didn’t know how anyone managed to do this without passing out from the stress. Her chest was worsening, but if she backed down now, it was all over. They were getting to close, she could almost taste the victory on her tongue. Once the prisoners were released and safe, she would be done. She would be the hero she desperately wanted to be.

The worst part was that she was significantly falling behind. Sisera didn’t have the speed to keep up with the others, and the strain of movement was practically destroying her body. She tried to call for them to wait, but she didn’t have the breath. She just needed a quick break. A quick break and she would be fine. She would be…fine…

#

Sisera looked up. There was no one around. She was slumped against a wall, and her body was covered in sweat. What happened?

“ESPIO!?” she cried.

Nothing.

“Shit shit shit shit. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. You have a map. You have a comm. It’s fine.”

Sisera tapped into her transmitter. “Knuckles? Amy? Do you copy?”

Radio silence.

“Espio? Vex?”

Still nothing.

“God dammit!”

Sisera threw the transmitter down in a fit of rage, smashing it to pieces. She instantly regretted it, knowing it was her only way of communicating with the group. Her anger got the best of her again. Even after years of therapy and anger management classes, she still let it take over her actions. At this point, the map was the only thing she could rely on, as she couldn’t even rely on herself.

And she followed the map quite quickly. Sisera wasn’t sure what happened, but after blacking out, she had gained a strange burst of energy. Her movements were quick, taking her little to no time to traverse the large station walkways. As badniks appeared, they had no time to even think about attacking her. She burned and kicked her way through the army, destroying everything that moved. She also experimented with her abilities, using her light beam to fling herself around corners, and jumped higher by using bursts of air from her wispon.

An alarm sounded in the distance. Sisera was getting close. So close, in fact, she could hear yells from who she assumed were the prisoners. She sprint up a series of stairs to see prisoners running out of holding cells toward railing in the prison. Someone must have found the security room and released them, as they all cheered over their release. Hoots and hollers escaped from the throats of those looking past the railing, despite lots of them looking too run down and ragged to be exerting so much energy. Sisera looked over the railing to see what was going on.

Sonic the Hedgehog was fighting a large red creature in the middle of an arena. The creature piloted a badnik, the kind that looked like a giant hornet, except this one was bigger and bader than the others. The harder they fought, the wilder the crowd got. They began to throw whatever they could find at the badniks in the arena, destroying as much machinery and electronics as they could. It was starting to turn into an all out riot, and Sisera worried they would be uncontrollable before the teams could get them out of there.  
Despite being held captive for so long, Sonic had no trouble taking care of the creature. But it wasn’t your everyday bad guy beat up. As soon as the creature fainted, it disappeared. The crowd was on the brink of a breakdown until the prison began to shake. Sisera zipped up her police jacket and put herself into her officer mindset. It was showtime.

“EVACUATE NOW! EVERYONE FOLLOW THE STAIRS AND KEEP HEADING EAST! DO NOT STOP, STAY IN GROUPS, HELP THE INJURED. GO, GO, NOW. A SHUTTLE IS WAITING!”  
Mesmerized by her authority, the prisoners did as they were told and ran out of the penitentiary. The other teams must have been close because she could hear other fighters yelling over the crowds. A quick glance over the railing showed that Sonic had gotten an idea of what was going on and evacuated as well.

The travel back to the shuttle was a blur. Getting people to listen, helping them out, reassuring them. If anything, she was good at this. She’d always be able to care for others, hero or not. Sisera was going to make sure they would all be safe. She wasn’t going to let anyone else die.

_Bzzt bzzt bzzt_

Badniks began to swarm the prisoners, blaster arms at the ready.

“KEEP GOING!” Sisera screamed at the escapees.

She readied her wispon and shot a whip like beam at the bots. Nuts and bolts flew everywhere, giving the others time to run. They were so close to the shuttle, but the badniks were multiplying. Sisera had let her guard down and was now surrounded. A badnik suddenly shot it’s blaster at her wispon, destroying the device and scorching her arm.

“Shit…”

Now she had two fucked up arms, and no way to fight. Could she kick her way out of this? Unlikely. There were too many robots, and she couldn’t see a way out…

A blue ball of energy rammed into the nearest badnik, bouncing off of it onto the next one. It continued to bounce between each one until they were nothing but sorry scraps of metal.

“Easy now, everything’s cool,” the ball said after landing in front of Sisera.

Sonic held out his hand toward her which she gladly took. He hoisted her onto her feet, but she staggered from the pain in her arms.

“Woah, you alright?” Sonic asked while helping her balance. “Are you here to rescue me?”

Sisera nodded and pulled the black scarf down from her face. She looked into her brother’s green eyes and smiled. It had been so long since she had seen him, even before the war began. He was in poor shape. Skinny from lack of nourishment, bruised and beat from torture, and frazzled from imprisonment. He hadn’t grown an inch since she last saw him. He was even wearing the same ratty running shoes she had given him for his fifteenth birthday almost two years ago.

Sonic didn’t say anything else, he just hugged his sister like he had almost lost her forever. She did the same, feeling that she did lose him. But now he was here, and the tears wouldn’t stop pouring, even when they let go.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a friendly face,” Sonic laughed. He felt strangely giddy. “I’m glad the first one I see is yours.”

Sisera giggled back. She didn’t have the energy to speak, but she could still laugh at her brother’s quick quips.

“Hurry, let’s go before this place blows.”

Sisera followed Sonic toward the shuttle bay, being able to keep up with him for the first time in her life. Sort of. She did have to use her whip to fling herself toward the ship, but they made it on time to the joy of the fighters and escapees.

As the ship flew away from the Death Egg, everyone watched with a sense of accomplishment as it destroyed itself from the inside. Sisera may have felt the best of all. She had saved her brother and become a hero in her own mind.


End file.
